Officials blamed in China land misuse

Eighty percent of illegal land use in China is due to corrupt local officials flouting regulations, state media said on Friday.

China's land ministry offered that figure in a plea to local governments to rein in rampant illegal development, saying it was contributing to a dwindling of the nation's arable land, the China Daily newspaper reported.

"The work to crack down on illegal land acquisition cases should be put at the top of the agenda," it quoted the Ministry of Land and Resources as saying.

Land Minister Xu Shaoshi said an all-out effort was needed to prevent arable land dipping below 120 million hectares (297 million acres), a level long viewed as the minimum required to feed the nation of 1.3 billion people.

"The red line of 120 million hectares of arable land cannot be crossed," Xu said, though he revealed no significant new measures to prevent that happening.

Arable land was at 121.8 million hectares at the end of last year, compared with 122 million in 2005.

China has struggled to control mushrooming illegal land seizures and development, typically caused by the collusion of business interests and local officials.

The country sees regular protests by farmers and other citizens angered by having their land snatched at cut-rate prices or seized outright.

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